“It’s interesting. Obama is, without a doubt, the best campaigner we’ve seen in a long time. Christie does know how to keep himself favorably in front of people,” said poll director Maurice Carroll. “They’re both just plain excellent at projecting themselves and telling people who they are.”

Christie has endorsed presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney for president, but Obama leads him in the Garden State 49 percent to 39 percent. Even if Christie joins Romney on the ticket as a vice presidential candidate, Obama still leads 50 percent to 42 percent.

“Color New Jersey blue. President Barack Obama beats Gov. Mitt Romney and Christie’s presence on the Republican ticket doesn’t help Romney,” said Carroll.

The poll also shows U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) beating his likely opponent in November, state Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Monmouth), 45 to 35 percent. Three quarters of voters don’t know enough about Kyrillos to form an opinion.

“We’ll keep a close eye on this U.S. Senate race. Sen. Robert Menendez’s lead is far from solid, running against State Sen. Joseph Kyrillos, who is about as close as a politician can get to anonymous,” said Carroll. “As a long-time New Jersey power in Trenton and Washington, Menendez would feel a lot better if he could hit 50 percent on his approval rating and his matchup number.”

The poll was conducted from May 9 to 14 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly cited favorable/unfavorable opinions of Christie and Obama as approval ratings.